This invention generally relates to a pest control system, and more particularly to a system that allows attraction, interception, elimination, and monitoring of colonies of cellulose-eating pests, such as termites, and other food foraging arthropods with minimal disturbance to the natural foraging of the pests. The system additionally provides for illumination and irrigation along the system, which serves dual purposes of attraction of the pests and aesthetic advantages through appropriate lighting and irrigation as desired by the user. Through the monitoring aspect of the bait station system, data can be collected, analyzed, and appropriately implemented in future operations of the bait station system, which would provide for more effective attraction, interception, and elimination of colonies of cellulose-eating pests in any particular environment.
Many pests, such as termites, are serious threats throughout much of the world to structures or other objects containing wood or other cellulose-containing components because these pests consume cellulose for nutrition. Subterranean termites, which typically dwell in the soil, often form large colonies. Members of the colony forage for food and thus burrow out passageways in the soil outwardly from the nest. Portions of the food located by the foraging termites are returned to the nest. Termites are also known to possess means for communicating the location of a food source to other termites within the colony. Termites invade residential and commercial structures, and even watercraft, moving along, and destroying, wooden or cellulosic poles, studs, beams, and sills.
Coptotermes formosanus is an invasive species of termite; it is often nicknamed the super-termite because of its destructive habits. This is due in part to the large size of its colonies, and the termites' ability to consume wood at a rapid rate. A single colony may contain several million individuals (compared with several hundred thousand termites for other subterranean termite species) that forage up to 300 feet (100 m) in soil. A mature Formosan colony can consume as much as 13 ounces (400 g) of wood a day and severely damage a structure in as little as three months. Because of its population size and foraging range, the presence of a colony poses serious threats to nearby structures. Formosan subterranean termites infest a wide variety of structures (including boats and high-rise structures), and can also damage landscaping and trees. In the United States, along with another species, Coptotermes gestroi, which has also been introduced from Southeast Asia, the Formosan termites are responsible for tremendous damage to property, resulting in large treatment and repair costs.
Another highly destructive type of termite is Reticulitermes flavipes, the eastern subterranean termite, which is the most common termite found in North America. These termites feed on cellulose material like the structural wood in buildings, wooden fixtures, paper, books, and cotton. A mature Formosan termite colony can range from 20,000 workers to as high as 5 million workers, and the queen of the colony lays 5,000 to 10,000 eggs per week. Both Coptotermes formosanus and Reticulitermes flavipes also feed on cellulose material above ground. In many instances, Coptotermes formosanus will build above-ground colonies in the wood they are consuming. These colonies may be associated with above-ground moisture such as rain, outdoor plant material, or moisture leaks in man-made structures. In such cases, the Formosan termites demonstrate a definite preference to feeding and colonizing at grade and above ground. Such termites do not need to return to the ground, and can invade to the top of a several-story structure if given a path of moist wood.
Many pest control systems are known and formed in a wide variety of configurations to monitor and eradicate the pests. One type of popular termite control system, for example, utilizes a monitoring bait food source that is placed below grade; the food source is available to the termites, which begin feeding from the device. The bait incorporates a toxic material, which once consumed, helps in the elimination or suppression of the entire termite colony. However, such systems may be ineffective against the termites that cannot locate the bait.
It has been observed that termites and other pests tend to find a vertical surface, along which they crawl from an underground location in search of food and water. Conventional colony-eradication devices are mostly of cylindrical configuration with smooth exterior walls that may prevent some of the pests from reaching the bait.
The present invention contemplates elimination of drawbacks associated with conventional pest control systems and provision of a pest control system designed to eradicate colonies of cellulose-eating insects inside buildings and structures, while at the same time attracting, intercepting, and monitoring these colonies so as to create more effective eradication of the colonies in future implementations of the pest control system.